It's Queens » Technologyhttp://itsqueens.com
The MagazineThu, 30 Jul 2015 14:19:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.63D Printing: A New Dimension to Queenshttp://itsqueens.com/?p=1005
http://itsqueens.com/?p=1005#commentsThu, 04 Jun 2015 14:38:07 +0000http://itsqueens.com/?p=1005The Future of Manufacturing is Making a Home in the Borough

By Patrick Kearns

Conceptually, 3D printing is somewhat inaccessible to the general public; it’s still an involved industrial process on the manufacturing scale, and on a smaller, do-it-yourself scale, it’s unaffordable. Eventually that will change.
While a 3D-printed future where we’re driving our 3D-printed cars to a 3D-printed restaurant that serves 3D-printed filet mignon on 3D-printed plates seems like a hazy dystopia and wholly unreal, there are much more practical applications.
The process of 3D printing is a lot less of an actual printing process than its name may lead one to believe.
Mansee Muzumdar works for Shapeways, a 3D-printing facility with an office in Long Island City. She said those in the industry know the process instead as “additive manufacturing.” “You’re building something in layers and layers,” she explained.At Shapeways, the products are built with layers of powder that are laser-fused together. There are myriad materials to choose from, including different types of plastics, nylon, silver, gold and sandstone.
“We have over 50 types of materials we can print in,” Muzumdar said. “You can actually buy something in 14-karat gold.”
The process is simple, in terms of manufacturing. A customer sends Shapeways one of their personal designs and chooses the materials they’d like their product to be created with.
To create that design, there are plenty of readily available 3D-printing programs online, such as Blender, Maya and Rhino – even Photoshop now has a 3D-printing component to it.
A design team at Shapeways then checks the object in their computer system to make sure it’s possible to make the design a reality. For example, sometimes a product will have parts that are too small that can break apart during the process.
Depending on the materials desired, Shapeways either sends the completed design out to one of their manufacturing partners or does it in-house. The metals and sandstones are done at facilities around the world, but the flexible plastic – for products like phone cases – is created right inside their warehouse space.
The whole process can take anywhere from eight to 24 hours with printers running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Technicians create massive blocks of powder, with the shapes embedded right into the blocks, for some of the products. They then take them to a room where they excavate the products like an archeological dig. Workers sift through the powder, pulling out toys, figurines and other small objects.
While looking through an array of 3D-printed items it’s easy to question the usefulness, but even in its early stages 3D printing is revealing its potential impacts on a much grander scale.
“It’s really just a new way of manufacturing,” Muzumdar said.
The product potential is endless. From children’s toys to life-saving medical supplies, these products can be mass-produced quickly and efficiently in a smaller space. It’s also helpful for a DIY designers. “3D printing is really great for designers that are trying to do something on a smaller scale,” Muzumdar said.
Personal 3D printers are still a luxury. A simple shopping search on Google shows most home printers priced at well over $1,000. As more and more are produced and the power and practicality of the printing is slowly uncovered, it could, like all technology, become affordable for the average consumer.
But is getting a 3D printer into the average consumer’s hands necessarily a great idea? Progress is, of course, a double-edged sword with stories about the ills and triumphs of 3D printing coming out daily.
In Brazil, thanks to a 3D-printed ultrasound, a blind woman was able to “see” her son for the first time. The viral video tugged heartstrings across the world. But there’s also some danger associated with 3D printing. There’s a significant amount of controversy surrounding home-printed guns and weapons. Likewise, unregulated products can be produced simply and efficiently, making their way onto the black market.
So what is exactly is the future of 3D printing? Is it desktop machines for everyone, like regular printers, or an integral part of manufacturing? It’s likely somewhere in between, but Muzumdar has a bold predication. “Soon, everyone will own a 3D-printed object,” she said.

Apple wasn’t the first to design a smart watch, but it comes as no surprise that the company credited with creation of the first personal computer may be the first to get it right. And it’s about time. Wearables have been seeping into the tech scene over the last decade, mostly because powerful computing hardware can be packed into extremely small packages these days. Most wearables introduced so far are either simplistic or ridiculous (like Google Glass), but somewhere along the line someone came up with an idea that is gaining traction: The smartwatch.

The first truly viable smartwatch arrived in the form of the Pebble and Pebble Steel watches, introduced in July 2013 after a highly-successful Kickstarter campaign raised more than $10 million from 85,000 donors, far exceeding the creators’ original $200,000 goal. Samsung was not far behind with the introduction of Galaxy Gear last fall, which had serious shortcomings that were addressed to a certain degree with their second generation Gear earlier this year. More recently, Motorola introduced its Moto 360 smartwatch, which we think deserves props for actually looking like a watch. And finally, in a surprise announcement at their most recent unveiling, Apple entered the wearable tech scene with its new unexcitingly named Apple Watch.

The truth is, wearable tech innovators are taking major strides, but they have yet to come up with a truly great original idea that they can integrate into their products. Tech geeks are looking to see more precise applications of the smartwatch that make them into more than mere extensions of smartphone technology. On a positive note, wearables are beginning to grow out of their awkward stage, and there are finally some options you could wear in Queens without getting too many sideways looks.

Battery Life and Charger: • Unannounced, though execs say it should last through a “typical day”

Two sizes: • 38 mm and 42 mm

Customization: • Several casings, bands and faces to choose from

Additional Features:• Built-in speaker and microphone for quick chats • Digital Touch features allows sending of images rather than using words, photos or emoticons. • Tools include Sketch, Walkie-Talkie, Tap notification, and Heartbeat • Measures movement through Activity app, which tells you how much standing, exercising and moving, including how many calories you’ve burned• Workout App, including Goals, Reminders and Achievements with ability to track progress over time on your iPhone

SAMSUNG GEAR and GEAR NEO

Processor: • 1 Ghz Dual-core chip with 512 MB ROM

Display: • 1.84” curved glass sAMOLED display with 320×320 resolution

Connectivity: • USB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0 and wifi

Battery Life and Charger: • The Gear uses an awkward clip-on charger, which is a downside, but it lasts for about two days before needing a recharge

Customization: • Available as standard model or NEO sports version

Additional Features: • 2 megapixel built-in camera • Personalized fitness manager • Music on the go • Dust & water resistant • WatchON Remote control compatible with most TVs and set top boxes • Compatible with Android and iOS devices

MOTOROLA MOTO 360

Processor: • Texas Instruments OMAP 3 with 4GB eMMC and 512MB RAM

Display: • 1.56” Backlit LCD IPS screen with 320×290 resolution

Connectivity: • Bluetooth 4.0 LE

Battery Life and Charging: • A recent update has boosted battery life to somewhere between 16-20 hours on a single charge. Charged via placement on USB-connected charging stand

]]>http://itsqueens.com/?feed=rss2&p=8610Glasses-free 3Dhttp://itsqueens.com/?p=49
http://itsqueens.com/?p=49#commentsFri, 13 May 2011 03:25:14 +0000http://itsqueens.com/?p=49New offerings from Nintendo, LG and HTC aim to make 3D less annoying

By Nigel Chiwaya

I think it’s safe to say that most of us are a little sick of 3D.

When 3D returned to mainstream movies starting with 2009’s My Bloody Valentine, business execs and suits from every walk of the entertainment world began hailing it as the next big thing. Soon we were seeing studios trip over themselves to add 3D elements to their films. Never mind that most films, like 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, weren’t ready for 3D and only showed 10 minutes of the movie in the third dimension, the assault was on.

By the time Christmas 2009 and Avatar rolled around everyone was onboard the gravy train. We were seeing our first 3D television sets; Sony began to dabble with 3D Playstation 3 games; and every single movie had a 3D variant to go along with it.

And yet 3D never really took off. Sales of 3D televisions have been stagnant, and no one really plays those 3D PS3 games.

“…most of us are a little sick of 3D”

Why? Part of it was price: in order to enjoy 3D at home you would have to buy a brand new television set, and it was hard to convince the recession-hammered consumer that the HDTV they spent $2,000 on two years ago was suddenly obsolete.

The other part was simple: 3D is just kinda cumbersome. In order to watch anything you have to wear bulky glasses (and heaven forbid if you already wear eyeglasses).

But it seems like the entertainment companies are getting the message, and while they might not be banishing 3D to the same corner of the tech world as Betamax and HD-DVD, at least they’re starting to tweak it.

Want proof? Take a look at the latest offerings from Nintendo, LG, and HTC. These companies are offering devices that promise to offer a full 3D experience without the need for bulky glasses and at a reasonable price point.

First: Nintendo. In March they released their latest Gameboy successor: the Nintendo 3DS. Like the Nintendo DS before it, this handheld system offers two screens and fully 3D graphics. However, the device gets its name because the top screen is a 3D screen and can project a 3D image. Even better, there is no need for eyeglasses; the user just needs to focus their eyes.

Nintendo also smartly realizes that not everyone will want or even be able to play 3D games–some people get headaches–so they have included a slider button on the device which can control the intensity of the 3D images.

When it comes to affordability, the 3DS is priced at $249.99.

Moving away from the gaming sector, we have LG and HTC, two smartphone manufacturers. Their latest cellphones, the LG Thrill 4G and the HTC EVO 3D, respectively, offer the same 3D technology as the 3DS, removing the need for 3D glasses. Both devices even include a 3D camera for taking photos, and will offer a full suite of 3D games and apps.

While neither phone has a launch date or price yet, we can assume that the devices will be priced at the usual $199-$249.99 smartphone price range when they launch on their respective networks: the Thrill 4G on AT&T and the EVO 3D on Sprint.

That’s not to say that these products are perfect; in fact there are many quite a few issues with them. Since they don’t require 3D glasses, the viewing angle for the screens is very small–the moment you un-focus your eyes or move the device the 3D effect will vanish.

Also, there is yet to be compelling evidence that 3D really adds to games or movies, and there is especially little evidence to prove that 3D will work on such small screens.

But that’s what makes these devices so compelling; the 3D aspect is not the dominating feature and can be turned off. The 3DS has other compelling features to it, like augmented reality games that make use of the device’s camera. The LG Thrill and EVO 3D are still more powerful than some laptop computers and have access to over 130,000 apps.

With these three devices, 3D is just a gimmick, a nice side-feature. And that’s exactly what it should be.